Making Mincemeat of Them

Operation Mincemeat is a British musical based on a totally ludicrous but true story about a oddball plan by MI5 in WWII to trick the Germans into thinking Britain planned to invade Greece, when the real target was Sicily.  At the heart of the plan was the use of the dead body of a tramp, designed to be a British officer complete with military plans, official documents and even a love letter from his fake girlfriend.  Among the intelligence team was a young officer named Ian Fleming, who of course went on to write the James Bon novels.  It’s been adapted into a couple of very good movies, The Man Who Never Was, and most recently Operation Mincemeat with Colin Firth and Matthew Madfadyen.

And in 2023, a lively, rambunctious comedy musical opened on the West End, where it was nominated for six Olivier Awards, winning two, including Best Musical.  It’s now on Broadway, where got four Tony nominations, including Best Musical, winning for Best Supporting Actor.  The casting mix-and-matches genders, with some women playing male character, and several of the mean playing women.

My pal, the inveterate Chris Dunn, saw the show in New York, raved about it, and sent me a link to one particular song which is what I want to post here.  It was really wonderful, but to put it in a fuller context, I’m going to start with what I think is the opening number.  They performed it at both the Olivier and Tony Award telecasts, and it's wildly energetic and, from what I know about the show, is the sensibility of the evening.  I’ll add that the song goes very fast, so I’ve never caught most of the words, though you can put on the Closed Captioning option (though it's a bit hard to keep up).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJRhdPsVqsA

This brings us to the song in question.  It comes in the story when British intelligence realizes they need to humanize the dead body more.  And decide to include a love letter.  The first attempts don’t go well.  That’s when one of the women officials involved tells a story about herself and a young love she lost in WWI.  The story is so moving that she’s convinced to write it as the fake letter.  And this is that song.

Playing the young woman is Jak Malone – who won both the Olivier and Tony Awards as Best Supporting Actor.  (And yes, the show overlaps genders in its casting.)  Chris says that it was this number specifically that won Malone the award, that it was so emotional.  Comments on YouTube with the video all say the same thing, that in the midst of this boisterous comedy, the song almost comes out of nowhere and overwhelms the audience with its emotion. 

​This, then, is “Dear Bill”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIIyDQnToJg